


Busadou [武茶道]

by joudama



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-31
Updated: 2010-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-10 21:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joudama/pseuds/joudama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nankyo was an old city, known for two things: its tea and its wars.</p><p>Prompt: Sephiroth, meditation over tea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Busadou [武茶道]

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chibirisuchan](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=chibirisuchan).



> The title comes from a mix of two Japanese words, budou [武道 - "The Way of War"] and sadou [茶道 - "The Way of Tea," aka the Tea Ceremony].

Nankyo was an old city, known for two things: its tea and its wars.

It had been the capital of Wutai, once long ago, and still remained a capital, albeit now simply of the Yamato Province. It was the city from which the great Wutai Expansion of the Warring Era long ago had begun; the city from which the first Kisaragi emperor had sprung--the emperor who left Nankyo and established the capital to the north and rejected the warring expansion of the previous dynasties.

Ironic then, Sephiroth thought, that a place that was so warlike could be so peaceful when subdued. Or rather, when burning.

They had taken the city--it had not been easy, and the Yamatan Wutai had preferred death before dishonor, and had done their able best to kill as many ShinRa troops on their way out. The Battle of Nankyo had been long and protracted, but necessary--not so much for location, but for breaking the spirit of the Wutai. Nankyo was the second most important city in the entire island continent, and symbolized all the glory that Wutai _was_\--Nankyo may not have been the capital for hundreds of years, but she was a city that never forgot that she _had been_ and that from her the longest-reigning dynasties had come.

Nankyo had once been a beautiful city. Aspects of it still were.

Sephiroth sat quietly in one of these places, in the palace that the last Kanagawa emperor had built as a testament to his own greatness, maps and notes laid out before him. He knew that he should be planning what was next, but for now he simply drank his tea and stared out at the ruined and smoldering city below him.

There was something to be said, for destruction. It was easy to understand that, in this place. Nankyo had burned before. This was not the first, and he doubted it was the last, because the city was so proud it seemed to dare any to have the audacity to attack it. Sacking Nankyo was not the same as another city; it was a sign that this was a war without quarter or mercy. This was one more mark in history; he would be remembered for this as well--the classics of Wutai literature of her warring times all spoke of the times when Nankyo had burned...and the price that befell those who destroyed her.

Nankyo was known for her tea and her wars...and for her revenge.

And so Nankyo smoldered and he sipped his tea, and wondered for a moment if he, like all who had burned the city, would fall as well, and then returned to his maps to plan.

**Author's Note:**

> "Nankyo" is pretty much Kyoto, but I admit to still kicking myself over the name--I didn't even think about the characters for "Nankyo" as being the same as the city of Nanking (y'know, the city in China that the Japanese completely decimated in WWII--the Chinese characters didn't even click with me, because I'd only seen "Nanking" written out romanized, so 南京 I thought about purely through the Japanese reading, and then afterwards did "Nanking=Nanjing=南京" hit me, and I facepalmed. I fully blame me learning pinyin romanization when I studied Chinese, so the old Wade-Giles that "The Rape of Nanking" uses didn't even blip on my radar. Had it clicked, I would have gone with the other name bouncing in my head, "Nanto," which means about the same thing ("Southern City" instead of "Southern Capital"), and avoids even potentially trivializing the history of Nanking, especially given how contentious the whole issue of what happened at Nanking still is between Japan and China. *headdesk* It is totally mea culpa for not catching that; it was not intentional, but I didn't catch it until after I'd established "Nankyo" and used it in other fic.
> 
> ...All that said, it also makes it rather creepy, considering what happened to Nanking in WWII (It is called "The Rape of Nanking" for a _reason_) and that Sephiroth completely sacked the city of Nankyo. ^^;;
> 
> The castle Sephiroth is it is a kind of meld of Nijo Castle and Kiyomizu Temple--the setting is Nijo, but set on a mountain so the view is the one off the pavilion at Kiyomizu...only, y'know, with the city in flames in the background.


End file.
